The Impossible Race: Cragbridge Hall, Volume 3 (35 page)

She struggled against the bot some more. There had to be a way out of this.

But Anjum couldn’t have done everything. He was with them when the lights went out. Well, he was with them virtually. Was it possible that he was guiding them virtually while being somewhere else physically himself? No. He would have to be in a booth and give them his full attention to do what he did. There had to be someone else.

The security bot stopped. Abby turned to see Anjum smash a small barrel—a stage prop, over the bot’s head. When it still stood, he picked up the remnants of the barrel, whacked the bot again, and then kicked it over. The robot released its grip as it fell.

“I’m so sorry,” Anjum apologized. “Not for knocking out that bot.” He looked down at the robot that was trying to get up. He hit it again. “But for everything else. I didn’t know what was at stake. I’ve been so afraid,” he apologized. “And I’m scared easily. I’m even afraid of people.”

“What are you talking about?” Abby said.

“Someone threatened me that if I didn’t let them take over my virtual persona, they’d hurt my family.” That sounded like Muns. Abby thought of having to rescue hostages in Brazil because of Muns’s threats. He was ruthless and apparently had forced his hand on Anjum.

“It wasn’t me the whole time you’ve been competing,” Anjum continued. “It was someone with software to sound like me who used my virtual person to impersonate me. I watched the whole thing. I’m so sorry.”

Did that make sense? Could it really have been someone else? It did sound like something Muns would plan. And if one of Muns’s followers wanted to enter the Race to make sure they succeeded and stole the vials, they would have to impersonate a student. School administration didn’t let adults in. What better student to impersonate than a virtuality genius? In a way it was logical. But could she trust him now? Or was this just an act? He
had
just bashed a security bot to save her.

“Who threatened you?” Abby asked, her mind still racing.

“I don’t know,” Anjum responded. “They gained access to hack into the school’s virtual booths easily enough, so I’d guess someone in the school has to be involved. But once they were in, it could have been a teacher or someone on the other side of the country—or the other side of the world, for all I know.”

It could be someone on Muns’s own estate, playing with them this whole time. But there had to be someone else on campus to give them access to the booths and to physically accept the vials.

Abby had to act fast. “Apology accepted,” she said. He couldn’t have made all of that up. Plus, she could really use one more person on her side. And if he was lying and tried to cross them, Malcolm could beat him into the ground. “Now let’s get out of here.”

The two rushed out of the backstage and down the hall.

Anjum let out a small laugh. Whoever had been impersonating him in the virtual world had used some great software. It had been very good, but not perfect. His laugh sounded slightly different. “I’ve never done something so exciting before,” he said. “Not in real life, anyway. This is better than virtuality.”

The two sprinted through the school. Anjum was slower; he probably wasn’t as physically active as Abby. “Come on, you’ve got to be faster,” Abby called back. “No offense.” She couldn’t resist.

“I probably deserve that,” Anjum said.

They had to duck into two separate rooms to avoid security bots. Abby peeked around the next corner, then had to quickly turn back. Guarding the dead-end hallway was a small army of at least twenty security bots.

Abby and Anjum backtracked to a classroom. “They are guarding the entrance to the basement with a bunch of security bots, and they aren’t going to move.” She spoke over the sync so the rest of her friends could hear.

It hit Abby all at once—
security
. Whoever was pretending to be Anjum had sent security bots after all the Spartans, and a corps of security bots guarded the way to the basement. There had to be an undercover traitor in security.

The officer with the blond beard.

He was an expert in tracking messages; he would probably also be an expert in hacking in and leaving untraceable ones. With that expertise, he could also hack into a virtual booth and give another of Muns’s men access to impersonate Anjum. The person who would have been most likely to discover him was Mr. Silverton, so he framed him first. And then he framed both Mr. Sul and his own supervisor to make sure he wasn’t detected. Now he headed all of security—and he was the problem.

Abby explained her theory and the fact that the real Anjum was next to her over her sync.

“You may be right,” Rafa said. “Let’s use the avatars. We can use them to break through their line of security bots.”

“The avatars are blocked,” Rafa’s mother said. She had joined the sync. “They caught me once. Thankfully, I managed to escape. But when I got back to the lab there was a large group of security bots guarding it.”

“Great,” Carol said. “So we just have to find a way into the basement, and into the avatar lab, and find a tranquilizer bomb in like the next twenty minutes or we are all unconscious for months and Muns wins. No problem.”

“We won the Race,” Abby said. “We came together. We beat a minotaur and a dragon and zombies. We can do this.”

“But those were games,” Malcolm said.

“They were practice,” Abby answered, her voice bold and sure. “Now it’s the real thing.”

Attack

It’s a pleasure to be leading you for real,” Anjum said over their new sync. “I have watched all of your challenges with envy. I must admit that I personally would never have chosen to join your team from the beginning. No offense. But having witnessed what you are capable of now, it is a grand pleasure to lead you, especially since it really counts.”

“The real Anjum is a little nicer than the imposter one,” Carol said.

“Not really,” Anjum answered. “That’s all you get. We’ll need your best. Your
very
best. I’m sorry we don’t have more time to plan, but we can do this. Now let’s trash some robots.”

Abby tensed, knowing that the dead-end hallway was coming up. Carol was right behind her. This had to work—and work quickly.

“Watch out! Security bot,” Anjum warned. “Derick, Piper, Maria, and Malcolm, get back!” He waited for them to comply, then continued, “Remember that as soon as they see us, we’re in trouble. Not only will they know where we are, but they may also send reinforcements.” He let out a short laugh. “It is quite similar to the zombie challenge. Let’s do it again.”

After a few minutes and a few more instructions, Abby saw the dead-end hallway. It was time to pick a fight with security bots.

“All right,” Anjum said through Abby’s earpiece. “On the count of three I want the first wave to attack. And I want to lead this one personally.”

Abby was in the first wave. She took a deep breath.

“One, two,” Anjum counted, “three! Go! Go! Go!”

Abby turned the corner. As the security bots reacted, pulling their stun guns up, Abby was very glad she wasn’t there in the flesh. She and the rest of the team had decided to fight robots with robots. From the robotics lab, Abby drove her robot car, one of the four prototypes Jess had made, around the corner and began to shoot nuts and bolts wildly.

Anjum drove another bot back and forth, shooting with impressive accuracy. The only one better was Malcolm.

“It’s about time I got to shoot stuff!” Malcolm yelled. “
Oh, yeah!
” His bot hit security bot after security bot in the face with its metal pellets. “I think mama would be okay with me shooting in this situation.”

The security bots jumped into action, reeling on their wheels toward them, their stun guns firing. Of course, the stuns didn’t have the same effect on other robots. It would take several direct hits—at least—to make any kind of difference.

“They’re pretty good at attacking back,” Malcolm said, veering to the side to dodge a stun shot.

“Pull back!” Anjum said. All of the Spartans’ bots pulled back around their corners. The security bots split up and came out to attack. Some had minor dents in their faces and bodies from the metal pellets.

“Release the mowers!” Anjum screamed. “Second wave of attack!”

A mower bot shot by Abby’s car. Its protective shield had been removed, leaving its churning blades exposed. It crashed into a security bot’s legs, rattling and chomping at the metal. The security bot toppled over, knocking down another. One by one, several bots fell. The others were quick enough to get out of the way.

“Now the welders!” Anjum cried out.

Derick and Rafa flew in with the choppers, the welders strapped beneath them. Flames spurted out of small welder bots, thin machines designed to attach metal to metal. Jess controlled the arms, pointing the fire at different bots as they drove through. More bots toppled over. Anjum drove with his drills on and out in front of him. He took the legs off of several bots.

“Would you mind if I joined the excitement?” a polite voice asked.

Anjum let out a loud and obnoxious laugh. “I think now would be perfect.”

“Thank you,” Jenkins answered. “I would like that very much.”

A quad lurched forward; the robot bench with legs carried a load. On its table was Jenkins’s large shell, the torso of a humanoid bot. Jenkins sat in the cockpit in its face. His torso swung a large baseball bat, smashing it into the security bots. “Thank you so much for lending me your equipment, Malcolm,” Jenkins said, swinging at a bot and knocking its arm straight off its body.

“I told you that you’d like baseball!” Malcolm called back.

“It isn’t Ping-Pong, but for what we are trying to accomplish, I think it is working rather well.” Jenkins knocked two more bots out with another swing.

“Boys,” Carol sighed, now shooting forward with her drills out. Abby had also joined the fray.

In less than another minute, the security bots were out of commission.

“Abby, Derick, and Carol, surrender control of your robots to Jess and run from the lab to the basement,” Anjum commanded. “Jenkins, stay there and make sure the entryway stays open. We don’t want more bots coming back before the three of them can get there.” His voice rose. “The rest of you, let’s go open the avatar lab. We’ll need the avatars to defend our real bodies at the robotics lab. My guess is that security is coming after us here as we speak and these robots will only defend us for so long.”

“And when you have the Crash with you,” Nia said, “you might as well let them do their stuff.”

• • •

Derick opened the door from the inside of the robotics lab, then promptly closed it. “They were faster than we thought,” he said. “We’ve got security bots outside the lab.” He was so sick of them.

“We can bring our robots back to the lab and fight our way through,” Anjum said.

“We don’t have time,” Derick said. He started to pace the room.

“What if we send out something before you?” Jess suggested, leaving her robots for a moment. “Would that work?” She brushed aside her blonde hair as she waited for a response.

“What do you mean?” Derick asked.

Jess moved her fingers and several more walking benches emerged from lab storage. “Let’s send two quads out to pave the way, and have the rest of you ride on the other two.”

“Like we bowl them over?” he asked.

“Oh yeah,” Carol said. “Bowling robots!”

“It’s worth a shot,” Abby said.

Four quads approached the door in a line. Derick got on the third and Abby and Carol shared the fourth. The quads’ surfaces were ridged, no doubt to help grip whatever they carried. But it didn’t make them comfortable.

“Hold this sheet metal up, in case they try to stun you,” Jess said, handing them each a sheet. It was wobbly and they could bend it around themselves.

“All right,” Derick said, hoping this was going to work. They only had sixteen minutes left until the bomb covered all of campus in tranquilizer.

“Are you ready?” Jess asked.

“We’re wrapped up like metal burritos and we’re ready to plow over some robots!” Carol squealed.

“Let’s do it,” Derick added.

They opened the door and the two quads barreled out against the security bots, knocking many of them over. Jess had programmed them to turn as they rode, so their wide side could take out more bots. One of the quads tripped up enough on the fallen security bots that it toppled entirely, but it crushed another bot on the way down. The other quad continued on in the opposite direction of the dead-end hallway. Several security bots followed the distraction.

“Let’s go,” Derick said, and pulled the sheet of metal tighter around him. He felt the lurch of the quad beneath him. It felt more like riding a horse than a robot. Each limb moved up and down in succession, but Derick didn’t have a saddle. He tried to better balance himself as it picked up speed. He was out the door, rushing through the middle of the remaining robots and on his way to the dead-end hallway in no time. He slipped his leg out from under the sheet metal to kick over one of the bots. He quickly pulled it back in and felt the sheet metal being hit with stun blasts from the bots.